good faith

/ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ/

//ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ// noun

"good-faith" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“good faith” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Good, honest intentions.

Corpus desk

Index EN-good-faith · good faith · English

good faith · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "G" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for good faith
PropertyValue
Headwordgood faith
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ/
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “good faith” in English

good faithranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

good faith is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Good, honest intentions.".

good faith has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Anglo-Norman bone fei, Middle French bonne foy and Old French bonne foy, en bone fei (“loyally, with honesty, with sincere intention”) (modern French bonne foi (“good faith”), de bonne foi (“in good faith, in earnest”)), from Latin bona fidēs (“go… The correct English form is good faith, spelled G-O-O-D- -F-A-I-T-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Good, honest intentions.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how good faith appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He made a mistake, but acted in good faith.
  2. Although this behavior may look suspicious, we should assume good faith.

Etymology

Calque of Anglo-Norman bone fei, Middle French bonne foy and Old French bonne foy, en bone fei (“loyally, with honesty, with sincere intention”) (modern French bonne foi (“good faith”), de bonne foi (“in good faith, in earnest”)), from Latin bona fidēs (“good faith”).

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "good faith"?
"good faith" is spelled G-O-O-D- -F-A-I-T-H. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ/.
What does "good faith" mean?
As a noun, "good faith" means: Good, honest intentions.
How do you pronounce "good faith"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "good faith" is /ˌɡʊd ˈfeɪθ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "good faith"?
Calque of Anglo-Norman bone fei, Middle French bonne foy and Old French bonne foy, en bone fei (“loyally, with honesty, with sincere intention”) (modern French bonne foi (“good faith”), de bonne foi (“in good faith, in earnest”)), from Latin bona ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list